WAVES FINALLY HAVE BANNER SEASON.

Byline: LEE BARNATHAN University Beat

Mark Trakh began his stint as Pepperdine women's basketball coach six years ago with his athletic director reminding him the school had 74 conference championship banners, none of which were for women's basketball.

Men's tennis has won 29 West Coast Conference titles. Baseball has 13 and men's basketball has 10. Water polo and men's volleyball have taken Mountain Pacific Sports Federation crowns. The baseball and volleyball programs have won national championships.

Only women's basketball, cross country and women's soccer haven't won a conference title. Of these, the basketball team has played the longest, since 1975.

Trakh took it good-naturedly. Give us time, he would say. Once all of our new players learn our system, we will win.

Trakh thought the Waves were a year away because they had several new transfer player. Instead, after winning its last six games, including road wins at Gonzaga and Portland last week, Pepperdine finally got its first women's basketball title.

OK, so it was a three-way tie with Santa Clara and St. Mary's, but a title is a title. Not only that, Pepperdine (19-7, 11-3), thanks to a coin flip, earned the top seeding for the conference tournament that begins today at Santa Clara. The Waves take on No. 8 San Francisco at noon.

The tournament continues Friday at 6 p.m., with the championship Sunday at 1 p.m. (televised on Fox Sports). The winner earns an automatic NCAA Tournament bid.

Several of the conference coaches believe Pepperdine is the team to beat, even if the tournament is at No. 2-seeded Santa Clara.

``They've shown that throughout the conference season, they've been a notch above us,'' Portland coach Jim Sollars said.

And from Loyola Marymount coach Julie Wilhoit: ``Pepperdine is a different monster. They're so athletic. Player for player, they're tough. I don't know if I'd want to face them.''

Two of the transfers, guards Rasheeda Clark (Colorado) and Kate Crane (Arizona) made the WCC first team, but Trakh attributes the improvement of the front line, especially freshmen forwards Anna Lembke and Nadja Morgan and senior Jenny Frank. The freshmen have worked their way into the starting lineup and, although they combine to score about 11 points a game, both shoot better than 50 percent from the field.

Frank, who lost her starting spot this year after starting for three seasons, averages six points.

``I thought next year we'd be really good,'' Trakh said. ``I felt the kids played a lot better, especially the last six games. We were playing NBA All-Star defense.''

Add Pepperdine: Senior Dana Sulenski made the conference's All-Academic team.

Other postseason dreams: Pepperdine isn't the only area program with the NCAAs on the mind. Cal State Northridge needs only to beat Weber State tonight at home to win its first Big Sky Conference title and host the conference tournament. A victory would render Saturday's regular-season finale with last-place Sacramento State meaningless because the Matadors (17-7, 11-3) own all tiebreakers with the schools battling them: Weber State, Portland State and Montana State.

UCLA, ranked 12th nationally, is half a game behind No. 18 Oregon for the Pac-10 lead. Four victories - over Washington, Washington State, Oregon, Oregon State - and a Stanford win over Oregon will give the Bruins their first conference basketball title. Since the NCAA women's tournament begins at home sites, the Bruins could host the first two rounds.

Bruins bats alive: The third-ranked UCLA softball team continues to roll. It's 14-0 after winning the UNLV Classic last week.

In addition, catcher/first baseman Stacy Nuveman was named Pac-10 Player of the Week after hitting .636 with six home runs and 17 RBI. Although just a junior, she needs two home runs to break Kim Wuest's career home run record of 30. UCLA next hosts Sacramento State Saturday and travels to Long Beach State Sunday.

THIS WEEK AT HOME

Tonight

Women's basketball: Weber State at CSUN, 7 p.m.

Friday

Men's volleyball: Loyola Marymount at CSUN, 7 p.m.

Saturday

Softball: Matador Softball Invitational - Oregon vs. CSUN, 10 a.m.; San Diego State vs. CSUN, noon

Softball: Saramento State at UCLA (DH), 1 p.m.

Women's basketball: Sacramento State at CSUN, 7 p.m.

Sunday

Softball: Matador Softball Invitational - Oregon vs. CSUN, noon; San Diego State vs. CSUN, 2 p.m.

Tuesday

Men's volleyball: Pepperdine at USC, 7 p.m.

Wednesday

Men's volleyball: Long Beach State at UCLA, 7 p.m.

CAPTION(S):

2 Photos, Box

PHOTO (1) LEMBKE

(2) MORGAN

BOX: THIS WEEK AT HOME (see text)